Word: lutz
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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When General Motors asked Bob Lutz to revive its product line in 2001, the thinking was that if anyone could do it, he was the man. The charismatic, brash ex-Marine fighter pilot had led the development at Chrysler of such hot cars as the Dodge Viper and PT Cruiser, and he wasn't shy about criticizing GM for cranking out the dullest metal in Detroit...
...share that view, thinking of GM as a rusted, doomed giant that will never recover from decades of bad cars and better foreign competition. President George W. Bush said as much in JanuaryDetroit needs to build "relevant" cars. (Message to GM: Forget about a bailout.) But now that Lutz is looking at things from inside GM, he's telling a different story--and has some evidence to back it up. He likes to reel off the names of new GM models earning solid reviews, notably the Chevy HHR, Buick Lucerne and Saturn Sky. GM has made enormous leaps in quality...
...perception is reality, here's one Lutz might like: Wall Street is warming to the idea that GM isn't dead yet. After losing $10.6 billion last year, the company reported a first-quarter profit of $445 million, its first quarterly gain since 2004. Much of that was due to accounting optics - and GM still lost $503 million in its North American auto operations. But in recent weeks the stock has rallied 42% from its 52-week low of $18.33. "There's more optimism than there was a month ago," says analyst Brian Johnson of Bernstein Research, noting "glimmers...
...Lutz's product revival, meanwhile, is yielding some decent cars with interiors that don't feel like Cracker Jack toys. The Saturn Sky won't save the brand but provides much needed zing. Edmunds.com calls it "Maria Sharapova at a tennis match full of middle-aged and badly dressed men." Lutz vows that design will no longer take a backseat to sales and marketing. A forthcoming Cadillac will be a model dreamed up by a design team and pitched to senior execs instead of the other way around. A 2007 Saturn sedan, the Aura, with an exterior designed in Germany...
...Crying: The Natural and Cultural History of Tears, Tom Lutz writes that "weeping often occurs at precisely those times when we are least able to fully verbalize complex and overwhelming emotions." We cry when words aren't enough, which suggests that any uptick in public tears may be proportional to a loss in our ability to articulate what we feel...